We have oodles to talk about, including reviews of "Arrow," "Beauty and the Beast," "Chicago Fire" and "Nashville," plus new seasons of "The Walking Dead" and a pair of FX comedies. We also talked about "Homeland," which we aren't guaranteeing will be a weekly thing, but for now... Sure.

Next week, it's possible we may end up doing a Tuesday podcast do to the sheer quantity of stuff that needs watching, plus a bit of travel on my part.

A long-time member of the TCA Board and a longer-time blogger of "American Idol," Dan Fienberg writes about TV, except for when he writes about movies or sometimes writes about the Red Sox. But never music. He would sound stupid talking about music.

1) Carl. Carl was never meant to be a foolish character. Sorry, I know he's a kid, however he's also a kid who had to grow up very fast and not be stupid. Yes, part of that is because that's how he is in the comic. However, circumstance dictates he learn to be smarter than that pretty fast.

Dave I - We *could* call Andrea's New Friend by name, but the show hasn't named her yet, so I opted not to. We did mention The Governor, but since he's purely hypothetical within the show, it seemed different mentioning him by name.

Dan, fair enough. It just seems less awkward to name her, or even give her a nickname. I suppose Andrea's New Friend has a nice, warm, inviting touch that captures the essence of a swordwielding dreadlocked woman who has two zombies on-leash. Her name is not really much of a spoiler though.

Homeland's contrivances... Is there any evidence the writers realize that is a problem they should work to fix, or is that just something they plan to keep doing and we should accept that as standard operating procedure? I am actually torn on that. While I overall like the show, over time that might become a deal breaker for me. Still, if they put forth the effort they would not have to rely on those obvious plot devices that undercut how great the show can be when it is not leaning on lazy plot contrivances that would be virtually impossible in those situations. I would like to believe Homeland could be better than that. More so, I would like to believe they would TRY to be better than that.

I've heard people suggest that Brody is going to claim that he was forced by Nazir to make the tape a while ago as propaganda while he was being held captive, but isn't the uniform that he's wearing on the tape going to be a dead giveaway? Not only is it his service uniform (which I assume he didn't have while he was being held prisoner), but it probably has medals on it that he was only awarded after he was rescued.

I don't really see how he's going to be able to spin the tape as an old version or why anyone would believe him if he did.

There is no believable way he could spin that. If they even try to, it would be a significant mistake. I am giving them the benefit of a doubt and guess they will do something else with the show than him downplaying the video and all of the related problems go away.